Dogmatic Quotes - Page 2

• The publication in 1859 of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin made a marked epoch in my own mental development, as it did in that of human thought generally. Its effect was to demolish a multitude of dogmatic barriers by a single stroke, and to arouse a spirit of rebellion against all ancient authorities whose positive and unauthenticated statements were contradicted by modern science.

  Francis Galton

  Science, Development, Spirit

  Francis Galton (2015). “Memories of My Life”, p.211, Routledge

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• Around 1967 I began backing away from dogmatic Leninism, not so much because I thought it was false, I just decided there was nothing utopian about it.

  Henry Flynt

  Backing Away, Utopian, Decided

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• Learn to control ego. Humans hold their dogmas and biases too tightly, and we only think that our opponents are dogmatic! But we all need criticism. Criticism is the only known antidote to error.

  David Brin

  Thinking, Errors, Ego

  ActuSF Interview, www.actusf.com. March 2008.

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• The mind God is looking for in man is a doubting, questioning mind, not a dogmatic mind; dogmatic reasoning is wrong reasoning. Dogmatic reason ties a huge rock to a man's foot and stops him forever from advancing.

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  God, Science, Men

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• Everybody feels like an outcast because the world is so large and every fingerprint is so vastly different from one another, and yet we have these standards and beliefs, and dogmatic systems of judgment and ranking, in almost all the societies of the world.

  Ezra Miller

  Different, World, Ranking

  "Ezra Miller and Zoë Kravitz Exclusive Interview BEWARE THE GONZO". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. August 26, 2011.

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• Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, People, Wave

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• Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it.

  W. H. Auden

  Dog, Missing, Religion

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• The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. If you take your children for a picnic on a doubtful day, they will demand a dogmatic answer as to whether it will be fine or wet, and be disappointed in you when you cannot be sure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Nature, Children, Science

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.379, Psychology Press

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• The artist must possess at least as much conviction as does his enemy, the dogmatic, mealy-mouthed, anti-art bigot.

  Eric Maisel

  Art, Enemy, Doe

  Eric Maisel (1996). “Affirmations for Artists”, Tarcher

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• Tantra is non-dogmatic, in the sense that we don't care about the sensual world; we don't care about other religious traditions. To not care doesn't mean that we don't learn.

  Frederick Lenz

  Religious, Philosophy, Mean

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• The spirit of dogmatic theology poisons anything it touches.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Atheism, Poison, Spirit

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• When the author has no idea of what to reply to a critic, he then likes to say: you could not do it better anyway. This is the same as if a dogmatic philosopher reproached a skeptic for not being able to devise a system.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Ideas, Criticism, Able

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• The attitude of the Church was not as dogmatic as is often assumed. Interpretations of Bible passages had been revised in the light of scientific research before. Everyone regarded the earth as spherical and as freely floating in space though the Bible tells a different story.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Attitude, Space, Light

  "Science in a Free Society". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1978.

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• Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious dogma or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute.

  Freeman Dyson

  Religious, Arrogance, Dogma

  Freeman J Dyson (2015). “Birds and Frogs: Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson, 1990–2014”, p.192, World Scientific Publishing Company

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• I really dread serious people. Especially serious, dogmatic people. I regard them as sort of what Reich called the emotional plague. I regard them as very dangerous.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Emotional, People, Serious

  "Robert Anton Wilson on Wilhelm Reich". Interview, March 1995.

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• I think we've produced a stronger prohibition on real racism, while maintaining freedom of speech in ordinary public discussion. So I'm very comfortable with where we're at. We're not dogmatic or impervious to a further argument, that's why we released it as an exposure draft rather than simply releasing it straight into the parliament.

  Tony Abbott

  Real, Thinking, Racism

  "Grattan on Friday: In Conversation with Tony Abbott". Interview with Michelle Grattan, theconversation.com. March 27, 2014.

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• The dogmatic and, therefore, invulnerable core in Islam is understandably simple: acknowledgement of faith, prayer, charity and fasting. Almost everything else is open to interpretation and modification in space and time.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Prayer, Simple, Space

  "'They Live in a Bleak, Devastated Universe'". Spiegel Interview, www.spiegel.de. November 14, 2005.

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• I sometimes find the vegetarians are more conditioned and more dogmatic than anything else, more than the religion. It's terrible, you must chew the food I don't know how many times, this you mustn't eat and this you must do, goodness me!

  Irina Tweedie

  Vegetarian, Sometimes, Goodness

  Source: www.goldensufi.org

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• The ability to change one's mind is probably a key characteristic of the successful investor. Dogmatic and rigid personalities rarely, if ever, succeed in the markets. The markets are a dynamic process, and sustained investment success requires the ability to modify and even change strategies as markets evolve.

  Jack D. Schwager

  Successful, Keys, Investment Success

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• The Universe is vast. Nothing is more curious than the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge. Skeptics and believers are alike. At this moment scientists and skeptics are the leading dogmatists. Advance in detail is admitted; fundamental novelty is barred. This dogmatic common sense is the death of philosophic adventure.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Adventure, Self, Common Sense

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• It’s time to move the debate past the dogmatic view that carbon dioxide is evil and toward a world view that accepts the need for energy that is cheap, abundant, and reliable.

  Robert Bryce

  Moving, Past, Views

  "The Murdoch Legacy" by Jeffrey Sachs, www.huffingtonpost.com. Ocotber 10, 2011.

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• The important thing is to be able to understand anyone who has something useful to say. - There is a general moral here. Be very careful and very clear about what you say. But do not be dogmatic about your own language. Be prepared to express any careful thought in the language your audience will understand. And be prepared to learn from someone who talks a language with which you are not familiar.

  Ian Hacking

  Important, Able, Moral

  Ian Hacking (2001). “An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic Desk Examination Edition”, p.38, Cambridge University Press

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• But, if the knowledge of the occult powers of nature opens the spiritual sight of man, enlarges his intellectual faculties, and leads him unerringly to a profounder veneration for the Creator, on the other hand ignorance, dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and a childish fear of looking to the bottom of things, invariably leads to fetish-worship and superstition.

  H. P. Blavatsky

  Spiritual, Ignorance, Men

  H. P. Blavatsky (2012). “Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology”, p.41, Cambridge University Press

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• Dogmatic toleration is nonsense: I would no more tolerate the teaching of Calvinism to children if I had power to persecute it than the British Raj tolerated suttee in India. Every civilized authority must draw a line between the tolerable and the intolerable.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Children, Teaching, Tolerance

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• All forms of dogmatic religion should go. The world did without them in the past and can do so again.

  Theodore Dreiser

  Past, Atheism, World

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